President of the T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA), Davanand Sinanan, is blaming parenting for the current “dysfunctional and anti-social” behaviour displayed by the nation’s students.

He made the comment while speaking to media during a tour of the Chaguanas North Secondary School yesterday.

The tour party included Minister of Education Anthony Garcia and Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon.

Sinanan’s comments followed reports of a planned gun attack at the school last Friday which forced the principal to dimiss classes early. 

He said: “We must educate the national community and people.

“A major part of the problem is parents are not parenting the way they ought to and the dysfunctional and anti-social behaviour that many of the students are displaying is a result of their socialisation and a result and reflection of the communities from which they come.” 

Sinanan also gave the assurance that TTUTA was doing all it could to help alleviate the issue of security at schools.

“TTUTA is continuing to do all that it can to ensure teachers can come and teach in a safe and secure environment and that the students can also feel safe and secure. 

“I empathise with their plight. I can identify with some of the concerns they have expressed as an educator,” he said.

Sinanan also confirmed yesterday that they had received a report of a student assaulting a teacher at the Diego Martin North Secondary school. However, he said he was still awaiting more information on the incident.

Also speaking during the tour, president of the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) Zena Ramatali renewed the call for more involved parents. 

She recommended instituting legislation that would allow parents time off from their jobs to speak with school officials. She also recommended the development of trauma centres and specialist teachers.

“We want to see the schools looking into a curriculum that speaks to the heart. We want to see peer mediation, community mediation, conflict resolution and anger management because many of these students are angry.” 

The amount of financial transactions suspected of being linked to terrorist activity has tripled in T&T over 12 months. 

So said the director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIUTT) Susan Francois.

Her comments were contained in the FIUTT’s 2014/15 report, which was laid in the Senate yesterday by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert. It covered the period October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.

Francois said there were five financial transaction reports that were suspected to be linked to terrorist activity in the year 2013/14 but that number increased significantly within the next 12 months to 16.

Francois said while there were 16 reports “the number of suspects identified in these reports, suspected terrorists and their financiers, exceeded that amount.”

“The FIUTT has received and analysed information from other local and international sources on over 100 persons who are suspected of participating in terrorist activities,” Francois added.

She said based on reports linked to suspected terrorist activity, the FIUTT contributed to the Egmont Group ISIL project on Western Hemispheric Regional Financial Intelligence Profile on ISIL foreign terrorist fighters.

She said once disclosure was authorised the FIUTT “will share the regional profiles and underacted global assessment with domestic government partners.”

She said terrorists groups were “bent on destabilising communities and causing loss of life; activities which are likely to have a global impact around the world, including the Caribbean.”

She said the FIUTT would support a re-examination of its legal structure “to ensure that this structure not only satisfies international requirements of autonomy and independence but also best serves the needs of the country at this time. 

Francois said it was commonly acknowledged that cash-intensive environments which foster a lack of transparency in transactions also facilitates criminal activities. She added: “The FIUTT will also recommend that the authorities give serious consideration to instituting limits to the use of cash for the purchase of goods and services, as well as in the collection of revenue at Government offices.”

Social Development Minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn says ministries are rallying to assist indiscipline students in schools.

She was speaking yesterday at the ministry’s Sowing Empowerment through Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Programme at the Bureau of Standards, Macoya.

She was commenting in light of the recent planned gun attack at the Chaguanas North Secondary School last week Friday.

Crichlow-Cockburn said her ministry was willing to counsel deviant students who were manifesting behaviour of indiscipline in schools.

She added: “Violence in any form is a concern for all of us in society and when it begins manifesting itself in the schools and among children it is of greater concern. 

“Our Family Service Unit provides counselling for families and we are also working very closely to treat with the children’s issues. It is a partnership. 

“We will have different ministries coming up with the initiative to treat with that situation. Under family services we have counsellors, we have psychiatrists, we have trained social workers that can go out if the families can’t come to us,” she said.

Crichlow-Cockburn said the Ministry of Education also had a unit to deal with counselling for families.

“They can walk off the street and sit with a counsellor and when the problem is identified we can get a counsellor to suit their needs,” she noted.

She said the ministry was seeking to do some outreach general programmes to assist.

“What they are doing may not be in their best interest and we can let them be aware that this is in their best interest.

“They are children who need assistance. They are not monsters,” she said.

Former education minister and Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh is calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to apologise for referring to the nation’s delinquent children as “monsters.”

Participating in the Ministry of Education’s third installment of its national education consultation at the Magdalena Grand Resort, Lowlands, Tobago, on Monday Rowley said there were “parents who were breeding monsters and sending them to the teachers.”

His comments followed reports of an alleged gun attack being planned last Friday against teachers and students of the Chaguanas North Secondary School.

After the information was brought to the attention of the ministry and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), classes were dismissed early and an increased police presence was introduced inside and outside the school since Monday.

In a release yesterday, Gopeesingh said while Rowley’s intentions may be honourable, his words were not.

Instead, he urged the Prime Minister to “commit thereafter to treating with all children in the fairness, respect and dignity that they deserve as individuals and citizens and afforded such basic human rights under our constitution and social contract of civility and humanity.”

Claiming that the foundation of any progressive education system was one which catered to the overall needs of all children, regardless of their social status or any other differences, Gopeesingh recalled his attempt to “restore an education system that was failing on many levels.”

Gopeesingh said there were several factors which were hampering the reformation of the education system, such as poverty, teenage pregnancies, absentee fathers, single mothers and a general breakdown of strong family life and a value system.

However, the former minister firmly believes it can be done with the willpower, determination and commitment from all stakeholders, including the Government.

To those leading that change, Gopeesingh cautioned: “Children are first and foremost victims and often are collateral damage of our societal failures, but never the cause of them, and, therefore, should always be treated as such.”

He went on: “No positive change, therefore, can be successfully engendered when the person in charge of them, ultimately the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, brands the children as monsters and promises to deal with them in terms and methods yet to be defined by him.”

Gopeesingh said that had immediately struck an ominous chord, and “Dr Rowley cannot profess to be ignorant of the frightening consequences of such a statement, nor can he not be aware of their power to cause distress and resentment among the majority of parents of this nation who are working very hard to ensure that their children do not fall through the cracks and succeed despite our widespread social problems.”

Two teenagers of the Chaguanas North Secondary School appeared in court on Monday and yesterday charged with threatening to kill a security guard and threatening to physically harm a teacher.

The two teen boys are alleged to have threatened their female authority figures last week prompting classes to be dismissed early when school officials received information of a planned gun attack by gang members with close links to students attending the school.

Last Friday, one of the teens, a 14-year-old Third Form student of the school, appeared in court charged with obscene language. He was then denied bail by Magistrate Wendy-Ann Doughdeen-Bally and ordered to return to court on Monday. He pleaded not guilty then to the charge.

On Monday the teen, with his mother, was informed that additional charges were laid against him.

The charges were using threatening language and assault by threatening to kill a female security guard.

The teen pleaded guilty to the three offences and was granted $5,000 bail. He was ordered to return to court on March 1. The magistrate also ordered that a probation officers report be submitted before she sentenced the teen.

Yesterday, a schoolmate of the 14-year-old appeared before Doughdeen-Bally and pleaded guilty to threatening to inflict grievous bodily harm against his geography teacher. 

The fifth former was granted $10,000 bail and a probation report was also ordered before sentencing is handed down. He is to reappear in court on March 8.

Payments to pharmacists for July to August 2015 have been processed and were due to be out between yesterday evening and today, whereas payment for subsequent periods are being processed, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said yesterday.

Deyalsingh was replying in the Senate to questions from Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge.

Sturge had noted statements by the Pharmacy Board president regarding the stated intention of a growing number of pharmacies to “withhold” CDAP services. Sturge asked Deyalsingh what would be done in the short term to alleviate hardships to the vulnerable.

Deyalsingh said for the July-August 2015 period, payment has already been processed via the automatic Clearing House and credited to the accounts of the respective pharmacies and should be out by yesterday afternoon or today for the latest, “and this was already in the cards,” he added.

For the September 2015 period, payment was already processed and will be received. For the period October 2015 to January 2016, he said, requests for payment had been signed off by Nipdec to be submitted to the Health Ministry by yesterday afternoon for release of funds.

Deyalsingh said the situation had nothing to do with lack of funds or lack of advances, but with problems with the private sector firms charged with the responsibility of converting the actual prescription into dollar value which then comes to Nipdec.

Part of the reason, he added, had to do with the late reading of the 2016 Budget due to a “late election” which the PNM had advised the PP against, Deyalsingh said.

Asked by Sturge why the situation was allowed to develop, Deyalsingh said that was because the PP had not dealt with the bills for July, August and September 2015. Continuing to blame the situation on the PP government, he said the PP had a “late election,” and had cut Nipdec out. 

In response to Opposition Senator Wade Mark’s query on when the St James Medical Complex and Sangre Grande Hospital will be supplied with sufficient quantities of life-saving drugs for cancer patients, Deyalsingh said no cancer patient is being disadvantaged regarding drugs.

He said oncologists have informed him that they have adjusted treatments for a second choice of drugs and treatment is going according to protocol.

Deyalsingh claimed the shortage of drugs was “due to the late Budget” and poor procurement protocols since Nipdec’s contract had been taken away. He said he had asked the Finance Minister to ask Nipdec to resume supply. He added Nipdec will be put on an annual contract and private sector suppliers had been asked to “lend” stock to put into the public sector.

Replying to UNC Senator Khadijah Ameen’s query about surgeries being put on hold at some hospitals due to lack of drugs, Deyalsingh said this may have been the case at the Sangre Grande Hospital over the Christmas season when cleaning of the surgical areas resulted in elective surgeries being put on hold.

The approved budget for phase one of the restoration works of the National Heritage Library in Port-of-Spain is $21 million.

The work in this phase includes the restoration of the roof and walls alone and is due to be completed by May.

Touring the site at the corner of Pembroke and Hart streets, yesterday, Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie estimated that the work would be completed within the stipulated time frame and under budget.

He said: “So far, I think we might be under budget because we have had a change in the scope of works.” Following the brief tour as he addressed reporters, Cuffie added: “I can assure you that it will come in at less.”

He was accompanied by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Angela Edwards, and acting executive director of the National Library and Information System (Nalis) Elizabeth Mahadeo.

He said the library, which was listed as a heritage site by the Council of the National Trust, was “an important project for us.”

Following the restoration work, Cuffie said the building would become home to the Eric Williams Memorial Collection. The collection is currently housed at St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. 

Built in 1901, the Trinidad Public Library was the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Revealing that this project formed part of the work being done on libraries across the country since 2009, Cuffie said facilities in Couva, Rio Claro and Chaguanas had already undergone restoration work and reopened.

Gesturing to the scaffolding atop which workmen were perched as they continued work, Cuffie said the site was historical as it was the place where Dr Eric Williams first came to the country’s attention.

Adding that phase two of the project would begin in May with a new contractor, he said he was confident in the work currently being done by the project manager, the National Maintenance Training and Security Company (MTS).

Fides Ltd was hired by MTS as the contractor and has since employed Manuel R Vila, a Cuban restoration artist.

MTS project manager Christopher Lackrajh confirmed the work began 14 months ago and was due to be completed with a 24-month period.

He said phase two would include the windows, doors, plumbing, electrical and mechanical fixtures.

​

Despite the very high rate of development in this country no new environmental legislation was passed since 2001.

And much of the existing environmental legislation is outdated; even with the more current laws and policies there has been limited and ineffective implementation.

This was stated in the 2012 Environmental Management Authority’s 2012 annual report which was laid in the Senate yesterday.

The report said T&T’s biodiversity has been, and continues to be, under increasing threat from human activities.

“There is urgent need to establish instruments and mechanisms that would allow for more effective management of biodiversity,” the report urged.

Regarding the tourism industry, it said this has played a significant role in driving changes in land use and land cover with great emphasis in Tobago on creating infrastructure for tourism.

But, the report said, the level of increased arrivals has led to the need for the expansion of the hotel industry, resulting in a high probability of greater pressure on coastal ecosystems to carry the recreational load.

It also summarised major causes of the degradation of T&T’s biodiversity:

• Rapid economic growth of the oil and gas industry has driven societal changes and changes in land use and land cover especially, though not exclusively, in western Trinidad and in south western Tobago. These have been exacerbated by lack of effective governance and implementation of laws and policies as well as by other factors such as overharvesting and climate change

• On account of these changes there have been significant modifications, especially in the country’s forests and coastal systems

• There has been pollution of inland freshwater systems and coastal regions on account of land use activities, principally housing, urbanisation, agriculture, industrialisation and quarrying.

The report said loss of ecosystems has had some very direct and severe consequences, of which the most pressing include the following:

• Greater severity of flooding in recent years in areas most modified by human activities. These coincide with areas of highest urban and residential development

• Lower qualities of good-quality water from inland water sources for human consumption

• Loss of suitable habitats for wildlife and fragmentation of habitats, resulting in reductions in the abundance and distribution of species on both islands, as well as a higher vulnerability of certain species on both islands to endangerment and extirpation

• Economic loss in tourism and fisheries in Tobago associated with extensive coral reef degradation

• Higher fish price due in part to depleted marine stocks.

As thousands of citizens face the breadline because of T&T’s current economic slump, Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget says employers should cut their profits instead of laying off workers.

At a media briefing at the George Camps Complex, California, yesterday, Roget said while unions understood the effects of low oil prices on the country’s revenue, workers alone should not bear the brunt of financial adjustments.

Already 480 workers from ArcelorMittal are facing unemployment as the company has requested the Steel Workers’ Union sign an agreement to have workers dismissed. More than 400 employees were sent home last year. Downstream companies, Central Trinidad Steel Limited and Tube City IMS Ltd, have dismissed 200 workers and 197, respectively, from 2015 to date. 

Roget also recalled that 68 NP workers are in court appealing wrongful dismissals, while Construtora OAS has intentions of sending home close to 1,000 workers.

Roget said some employers are using the low oil and gas prices to reduce their workforce though their businesses were not affected. He warned that if the trade unions had to respond to threats to workers’ survival, there would be chaos.

“Businesses generally have to be able to be satisfied with less profits. You cannot get the same amount of profit in a situation where workers are being sent home for you to maintain your profit margin. Absolutely not. Therefore, we are saying, employers, businesses, everybody must be able to sit down, discuss and agree to share the burden of adjustment.

“It must not be borne on the backs and shoulders of the workers alone. Already workers are being sent home...and that is just the tip of the iceberg. If we allow that to continue we will end up with an industrial relations fiasco in this country. We don’t need that at this point. What the country needs is stability and calm for us to chart a proper way forward, but if workers and trade unions are provoked to respond to issues of survival we will end up in chaos,” Roget said.

He said JTUM would be hosting its national Conference of Shop Stewards and Branch Officers at Paramount Building, San Fernando, on March 2, ahead of the mid-year review of the national budget. 

He said the conference was to discuss the economy and the way forward and there must be a meeting with the Government before any adjustments to the budget were made. 

Among the topics to be discussed are the need to increase workforce productivity and efficiency, the food import bill, and political appointments of unqualified people to state boards.

Relatives of Dale “Chappy” Mc Intyre, who was shot dead inside the Moruga Forest on Monday night, say there are too many holes in the story surrounding his death. It was only around 7 pm on Tuesday night that undertakers removed Mc Intyre’s body from the forest.

At her home yesterday, Mc Intyre’s sister, Jude Mc Intyre-Paul, said there were many questions yet to be answered but was confident her family would get the truth. 

Police reported that Mc Intyre, 39, of Edward Trace, went to hunt with his friends — Ramesh Balkie and Glenroy Mollineau — on Sunday afternoon and on reaching the start of a trail the men went off in separate directions. Around 9 pm Monday, one of the hunters heard a loud explosion and hours later found Mc Intyre on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head. 

On Tuesday morning, the men went back to the village and called the police. Princes Town and Barrackpore police, led by ASP Rohan Pardasie and Insp Joey Samaroo, journeyed approximately five miles into the densely forested area off Edward Trace, Basseterre. 

After an hour’s walk, the officers found Mc Intyre on the ground, several hundred metres away from the camp. While police suspect he may have set off a trap gun, Mc Intyre-Paul said trap guns did not usually shoot people in their heads. 

Besides that, she said trap guns in that region were usually set deeper in the forest in a place called “The Cocoa”. Based on a conversation they had with one of the hunters, she said Mc Intyre was found dead in a hammock with bullet wounds to his head and hand. 

However, she believes he could have been accidentally shot by a hunter as the area is frequented by hunters from around the country during the hunting season. She said: “I believe it was accidental but it have real holes in the story. Up to now police have not spoken to us but we will find out what happened eventually.

“The basic theory we are working with and with how the hunters explained, when you have on headlights, it can be mistaken for an animal’s eye and maybe someone saw the light from a distance. 

They all had on headlights because it was night and some headlights have different hues. 

“One of the men he was hunting with told us that they caught a lappe and brought it back to the camp. He told them he saw a spot by a balata tree and he left them and went back there that night. 

“They said after they heard the gunshot and he did not return, they called his phone but he left it at the camp. Out there your phone is a lifeline.” 

She said usually when hunters saw an animal they made a sound to let others know that they were around.

The two bodies found in a forested area in St Augustine on Tuesday evening were identified  yesterday as teenage schoolboys Stephan Singh and Daniel Halls.

In a week in which the national conversation was on troublesome students, particularly teenaged boys and their links to school violence and gangs, how the two came to be target of killers yesterday once again drove home just how real a concern it is.

At least one of the victim’s relatives expressed little shock at their untimely demise so early in their lives. According to police reports, around 4.40 pm Tuesday, residents of St John’s Road heard gunshots and alerted the police. 

Officers responded and found the bodies of Singh, 17 and Halls, 16. Police said they were told that the teens were seen as part of a group of five entering the bushes and after the shooting only the two deceased were found. Singh, a student of Trinity East College, had an empty revolver on him. 

Police said they had not ruled out the possibility that the other three people who entered the bush with them were suspects but they were still searching the area yesterday for them as possible victims of a crime. 

But police said they believed the teens had gone to either purchase drugs or to steal from someone’s marijuana garden when they were ambushed and killed. Police also speculated that the two boys may have been set up to be killed by the other three missing people. 

In speaking about her son yesterday, Halls’ mother, Joy, referred to the Old Testament admonition handed down to the Jews by God for children to obey their parents lest their lives be shortened. 

Halls quoted from the scripture: “Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you”, taken from the book of Exodus, as she spoke to the media  yesterday at her  home at Bamboo Trace, Upper Fairly Street, Tunapuna. 

“There is a penalty for disobedience and scripture tells when you disobey your parents you will not live long. I did the best I could do and this is the way God chose for him to go,” Halls said, adding that the only advice she could offer was for parents and children alike to walk in obedience.  

Halls said her son, who wanted to be a police officer, recently began associating himself with “bad influences” and was not listening to her whenever she told him to stay away from them. Halls said when she learned her second son was killed she was not surprised at all because of the life she saw he was living. 

“I was not surprised at all because he was a disobedient child. Being around in the neighbourhood you will hear stuff and then he was not coming home. He was not rude but he was disobedient,” Halls said, adding that her son, a fourth former at Aranguez North, never spoke much.

About a half-an-hour drive away at Ramgoolie Street, Curepe, Singh’s godmother, Shalimar Gibson, said her godchild was like her son. 

Saying she last saw him the day before he was murdered, Gibson said Singh was nicknamed “Puppy” by relatives because his father was nicknamed “Doggy”. She said the last time she saw him she heard his friends call him “Monster”, but said she rebuked them from doing so in her presence.

Gibson said the Fourth Form student wanted to be a footballer and was a very good striker. Another relative said the teen also once played for local football club San Juan Jabloteh. 

“He was just jolly, always laughing and giggling. I don't know what he used to do with friends. I’m not with him 24/7 but when he in this house it was a level of respect he showed,” Gibson said. Gibson added that on Tuesday she dreamt of her godchild and when she heard of two people being killed she instinctively knew it was him but hoped it wasn’t. 

“This was a shock because I dreamt him last night and I kinda knew he was gonna go but didn't know he was gonna go that time. The dream was a funny one from what I remember,” Gibson said.

She said Singh lived in Cunupia with his mother but would regularly visit her, and was due to visit his school this week after he was suspended for having his cellphone in class. 

“Don't let negative people follow you and don't follow negative people. Have your own head and don't let other people think for you. The same bad man who putting gun in allyuh hand and have allyuh killing each other while them old bad man home rock back,” Gibson advised youths who may be inclined to follow bad company. 

Gibson said Singh had also recently joined the Muslim faith and believed his killing may have been gang-related. Halls’ mother also confirmed he had recently joined the Muslim faith. 
In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Derek West, principal at Trinity East, described Singh as an average student. West added that there was counselling provided for the students who knew him yesterday and they had also sought assistance from the Ministry of

Education for guidance officers. “We are working on the healing process for our boys now,” West said. Attempts to contact teachers at Aranguez North were unsuccessful as all calls went unanswered.

The findings of the public consultations on state-owned CNMG are being studied by the Terrence Farrell team which is examining state enterprises, Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie said yesterday.

He said Cabinet, which had sent the findings to the team, is awaiting an opinion on it. The consultations had been held last year to gauge views on CNMG in a bid to plan for its future.

Cuffie said he had not yet received the resignation of outgoing CNMG-GISL chairman Helen Drayton who resigned recently but added that she had worked very hard and delivered on time on the commitment to do a plan for CNMG. 

“...And she did her job well and ensured we had a proposal to go forward with and it was time to move on. We will always be indebted to her and I wish to thank her for her work,” he said.

Cuffie disagreed with the perception that Drayton’s sudden resignation only five months after being appointed sent negative signals regarding service on PNM state boards. He said when Drayton was appointed and neither GIS or CNMG had had CEOs and she therefore had an extended portfolio. 

“And she had other commitments, so one can understand her decision.”

Drayton would only say briefly yesterday that since she handed in the proposals for the companies, she felt a thorough job had been done and a lot had been done to bring CNMG into a more steady state and she was moving on. She said it wasn’t that she was frustrated with the position or mandate. —Gail Alexander

The Heliconia Foundation (HF) has asked the Integrity Commission to probe alleged hiring practices at the office of the Attorney General from June 2010 to November 2014 when Anand Ramlogan was the past PP government’s Attorney General.

The request was sent to the commission, via letter dated February 21, 2016, soon after the foundation, following a court hearing to obtain certain information on the matter, received the information.

The foundation, formed in 2012 and comprising young professionals, describes itself as a think tank promoting good government, equal opportunity and justice. It has been linked with the ruling PNM. Several members are PNM. Foundation chairman is Michael Coppin who is a PNM Government senator. The letter to the commission is signed by Coppin.

According to the HF letter, its complaint to the commission regarding the alleged hiring practices is being done pursuant to Section 32 of the Integrity in Public Life Act. It also calls on the commission to determine if any alleged violation occurred concerning sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Proceeds of Crime Act.

The HF said it had launched a probe in 2014 of 41 ministries, state agencies and state enterprises over the  June 2010 to November 2014 period, using primarily Freedom of Information requests “and with the invaluable help of a number of present and former employees of the  office of the Attorney General (AG).”

Presenting the results of its investigations to the commission, HF added: “These results reveal a number of startling statistics which in our view call into question the integrity of persons in public life as defined by the  Integrity in Public Life Act.”

HF’s Freedom of Information requests had sought information on the number and list of posts for which employment contracts were terminated prior to expiry over June 2010 to November 2014 and the number of people who were not previously employed at the AG’s office who were given contracts over the period.

The HF also sought information on the number and list of positions for which employment contracts were not renewed for June 2010 to November 2014, those persons terminated and reasons for the termination or non-renewals of contracts. THE HF stated information was sought from the AG’s office on the qualification of those employed over the period and what was necessary for the posts.

It stated the former AG, despite acknowledging receipt of HF’s requests,  “failed, neglected and/or refused to respond” to the stipulated time frame. This forced HF to threaten legal action. When information was still unavailable by August 2015, HF sought judicial review against the former AG.

The High Court heard the matter last January 23 and an undertaking was given by the AG’s office to release the information last February 15, HF noted. It claimed a number of Equal Opportunity investigation officers at the AG’s office were terminated and a number of advisers to the former AG and communications staff were “woefully underqualified” for the position held.

HF also claimed the results showed a number of positions also appeared on the list for which there was no official job description. HF also alleged there was an absence of records to substantiate a number of the purported qualifications of persons hired.

“It is our legal counsel’s view that by hiring persons who were unqualified for the post, persons in public life and or public officials breached their duty to perform their functions and administer public resources in an effective and efficient manner and to be impartial in exercising their public duty.”

HF also claimed part of the Prevention of Corruption Act was breached. This concerns providing a fee/rewards on account of an agent doing anything in which the state or public body is concerned.

Ramlogan, whose cellphone carried a message to text him didn’t respond to a texted request for a reply call on the matter. Nor were subsequent calls answered. A man at Ramlogan’s San Fernando office said Ramlogan was not in yesterday.  

Garvin Nicholas, who succeeded Ramlogan as AG in February 2015, said he had not probed any hirings at the AG’s office when he was there since he had assumed people were properly hired, “because the department has a director of human resources and permanent secretary responsible for hirings.”

Walking through a Chaguanas supermarket, carefully looking at price tags on basic items, Marissa Lochan has become a selective consumer. In the weeks since Government has implemented the new Value Added Tax (VAT) regime, lowering VAT to 12.5 per cent and decreasing the number of zero-rated items, Lochan has had to make changes to her grocery list she had not considered before.

Instead of buying a case of Kool Kids drink for her six-year-old daughter to use during the school week, she buys cans of concentrated juice and makes for the week. Items which she regularly bought, yogurt and chocolate milk for her children, are things of the past. Yesterday, the Ministry of Trade and Industry released a list of food prices, before and after February 1, the day the new VAT regime was implemented.

The information from the list showed items which had increased by as much as 21 per cent in a matter of months. While a few items, such as Brunswick Vienna sausage and Cooks Mate soya chunks actually decreased in supermarkets, almost all other items, even those which should have decreased by 2.5 per cent, showed increases.

Nestle’s Orchard orange drink increased by 17.05 per cent, Eve soya oil increased by 21.44 per cent, Chief table salt increased by 20.07 per cent and Breeze multi-active soap powder increased by 17.4 per cent. Attempts to contact distributors of these products were not successful.

In its newspaper advertisement the Consumer Affairs Division noted some prices may have been altered between the division’s survey period and the introduction of the new VAT regime. In a newspaper interview Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the Government had no control over the base rate given by distributors.

President of the Supermarkets Association, Yunus Ibrahim, in an interview yesterday said in the past few months there had been a consistent increase in the base price due to increases from the suppliers.

“The reason for the variation in increases is that since it was announced in the budget in September that this measure was going to happen by December, the supermarkets would have been met with price increases by the supplier,” he added.

Ibrahim said between November and January 31, the volley of increases from suppliers would account for most of the increases. He said suppliers sometimes cited international market rates for the increases. For the past few months, the reason given by suppliers for increases has been the scarcity of the US dollar.

Ibrahim said in some cases, suppliers were forced to approach black market pricing of the dollar which currently stood at a value of $7. In other cases, suppliers were buying from a third party distributor who placed markups on the goods. “This is the core of our current pricing issues. There needs to be a prioritisation and stabilisation of US rates or things would continue moving in that direction.

“This trend will continue until we control the US availability and prioritise it for the purchase of food,” Ibrahim said. In a post-Cabinet press conference last month Imbert said that despite the removal of some items from the zero-rated list, citizens were set to save money due to other taxation measures.

These measures included the across the board reduction of VAT from 15 per cent to 12.5 per cent and the increase in personal income tax allowance from $5,000 to $6,000 monthly. With prices increasing on grocery shelves, consumers say they are feeling the pinch. Dimples Bhagan, a Chaguanas mother of two, says she has made a switch from the brands she purchases.

“I try to buy generic products where I can because over the past few months my overall bill has increased by more than $100.” Bhagan said the situation had forced her to make changes. “I’m not purchasing a full grocery list. I come every two weeks and buy what I need and I try to buy the cheaper versions of things because it is really hard,” she said.

T&T is the latest Caribbean country to be added to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Zika advisory. The country as well as the Marshall islands were added on Tuesday. T&T announced its first confirmed case of the Zika virus last week. In December, the first local transmission of the Zika virus infection was reported in the Caribbean.  

According to the CDC website, local transmission means that mosquitoes in the area have been infected with Zika virus, spreading it to people. Since then, the Zika virus has been reported in Barbados, Jamaica, Aruba, Haiti, Martinique and the US Virgin Islands. The CDC advises women who are pregnant to consider postponing travel to any area where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

“If you must travel to one of these areas, talk to your doctor first and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites during your trip.

“If you have a male partner who lives in or has travelled to an area where Zika transmission is ongoing, either abstain from sex or use condoms consistently and correctly for the duration of your pregnancy,” it added.

The Zika virus can be spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus. There have been reports of a serious birth defects of the brain, called microcephaly, and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies of mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant. 

Childhood obesity has grown by 100 per cent over the last ten to 15 years and this is frightening as it can easily equate to more limbs being amputated due to diabetes at the adult stage says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. 

He said so while fielding questions from members of the media after UWI's opening ceremony of Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of NCDs — Time to Accelerate Action at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Saying people were dying before the age of 70 due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as a result of their lifestyle, Deyalsingh said $40 billion was spent on health care from 2005 to 2016 but it has all been wasted. 

“We amputate more legs today than we did 20 years ago. We have to reorient the way that we think about nutrition,” Deyalsingh said. He said the enemy was not only fast foods but was also in the home when people ate white bread and white rice. In urging the population to take responsibility for its heath, the minister said an intervention must also be sought with children in schools regarding healthier eating practices.

That, he said, had already begun as discussions  have taken place with soft drink manufactures to reduce sugar. 

“If I am minister of health for the obese diabetic child today I don’t have to be the minister of health care for that same child 20 years from now when they present to a hospital to chop off their legs because they have uncontrolled diabetes.

“But the intervention that is needed is greater than our collective abilities so far because in T&T we have made absolutely little or no progress in controlling the epidemic of diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol,” Deyalsingh said.

On the way forward he said the cycle of societal and genetic factors that made T&T a leader in diabetes must be broken.

“This crown that T&T wears as the leader in diabetes, this trophy that we have as being first in the region when it comes to rates of diabetes... that is a crown of thorns,” Deyalsingh added. He said the ministry was moving to implement policy which was driven by data as a way of dealing with the issue.

“For us to tackle non communicable diseases it is going to take a long term intervention into our cultural habits... what we eat, how we eat and where we eat,” Deyalsingh said. He said the Government’s School Feeding Programme had also been advised what meals should or should not be given to children.

Greater corporate responsibility, the minister urged, was also of utmost importance as companies too have a part to play in the reduction of sugar and high fructose in drinks and other products. He said if that was achieved results would be derived from between six months to a year.

“Sugar is not the only culprit. The other culprit is inactivity. It has to be society voluntarily deciding this is where we want to go,” Deyalsingh added.

Regarding two samples taken from a mother and son from Freeport which was sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test for Zika, Deyalsingh said the results were not ready.

Highest mortality rate

Dr Alafia Samuels who chaired the event said in the Caribbean T&T had the highest rate of NCD mortality and the highest rate of premature NCD mortality in the region. "People are dying between 30 and 65. This is unsustainable from both the health and development perspective.

"Our response must be evidence informed from a transparent assessment process ," Samuels added.

The testimony of former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott), Calder Hart, is the only outstanding piece of evidence to be heard before the Las Alturas Commission of Enquiry officially ends on March 31.

Revealing that Hart’s attorney Tecla Duncan had written to the commission around 10.22 am yesterday, requesting further disclosure of certain documents, the commission’s instructing attorney Alvin Pariagsingh said Duncan had assured that once that was done, Hart’s witness statement would be filed within ten days of receipt of the documents.

Responding to this, commission chairman Mustapha Ibrahim said ten days was “too long” and instead ordered that Hart’s statement be filed within seven days of receipt of the documents.

Yesterday was the last day of the sixth session at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, following which the proceedings were adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Ibrahim last week requested all attorneys to file their written submissions within ten days of the commission ending in order to aid the three-member team in its review of the evidence before it and for them to submit recommendations based on the findings.

Sitting for less than one hour yesterday, the commission granted Udecott’s lead attorney Kathryn Denbow leave to withdraw an application for a witness summons to be served on Udecott’s former chief operating officer Neelander Rampaul. Denbow last week requested the commission to exercise its powers and compel Rampaul to testify.

Rampaul resigned from Udecott on April 31, 2010; while Hart resigned on March 6, 2010. The 52-page supplemental witness statement by geo-technical engineer Frank Arland was also tendered yesterday by attorney Larry Lalla, who is appearing on behalf of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

Arland, of Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers of New York, first testified on April 7, 2015. Testifying via video link yesterday, Arland said he believed that if certain geo-technical work had been done at the site at Lady Young Road, Morvant, prior to the start of construction it would have identified certain anomalies which might have prompted further investigations before any construction had begun.

In response to questions from commissioner Dr Myron Wing-Sang Chin about the boreholes that had been drilled at the site, Arland said the borings done by Geotech Associates Ltd (GA) were “very shallow.” He also said such work would have indicated the sub-surface profile which would have been useful to those in charge.

Asked to say if he believed that GA had been professionally negligent by failing to perform certain tests at the site, Arland responded: “I don’t know if it was negligence or not. I think it was an omission in that they didn’t investigate the slope.” GA’s legal team of Justin Phelps and Annabelle Sooklal were not present yesterday to cross-examine Arland.

AT A GLANCE

The commission of enquiry was set up to investigate “the entire process which led to the construction of the Las Alturas Towers at Lady Young Gardens, Morvant, and all other acts, matters or decisions done or undertaken incidental to and including the construction” of the project, which include the procurement process.

Two multi-storey units of the Las Alturas housing project began falling apart after construction and the $26 million towers were earmarked for demolition. They were part of a larger project, which was originally budgeted at $65 million and then rose to $90 million. The commission is chaired by former Justice of Appeal Mustapha Ibrahim.

The other members include civil engineers Dr Myron Wing-Sang Chin and Anthony Farrell. Attorney Laraine Lutchmedial is the secretary. They were appointed by President Anthony Carmona in December 2014. In September 2014, former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar recommended an enquiry into the project after raising concerns about the two towers.

The current opposition leader said Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley—who was a former housing minister under the PNM, as well as Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, who succeeded him, had both distanced themselves from blame.

At the time, Rowley said though he welcomed the probe, it would be another waste of taxpayers’ money. The Commission’s attorneys include Senior Counsel Pamela Elder and Jagdeo Singh, instructed by Alvin Pariagsingh. Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson and Larry Lalla are appearing for the HDC.

Kathryn Denbow and Brendon Sullivan are appearing for Udecott. Vinda Maharaj and Kirt Walrond are appearing on behalf of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Justin Phelps instructed by Anabelle Sooklal  are appearing for Geotech Associates Limited (GA). Emerson John-Charles is appearing on behalf of Civil Engineering Management and Services (CEMAS) and Steve Kistow Engineering Services.

Colin Kangaloo instructed by Danielle Nieves, appear on behalf of Udecott’s chairman Noel Garcia. Tecla Duncan appears on behalf of Calder Hart.

Up the forested Corosal Road in the Montserrat Hills of Gran Couva, around a sharp bend and behind two huge mango trees is a cocoa estate described as centuries old.

Surrounded by ancient immortelles, covered in bright orange blossoms, is the five-acre Santiago Estate whose cocoa trees are more than five decades old and still producing some of the world’s most prized beans.

Angela Tang Howad, “65-plus”, a former cashier who now owns this estate, refuses to let her age be a hindrance to her as she putters around between the trees in her straw hat, tall boots and a cutlass on her waist.

She prunes a bit here and there while chickens peck among dry leaves on the ground. The estate is so silent the loudest sound is that of the wind rushing gently through the trees as if whispering tales of times long gone. Humming Birds flit between shrubs and woodpeckers, parrots, cornbirds, yellow tail birds and semps break the quietness.

It’s the picking season but Howad and her brother, Peter, and their labourers have to wait until the green pods on the trees ripen for another harvest. Last week, they picked cocoa, cracked them, filled buckets with the beans and dropped them off to the San Antonio Estate a few miles away.

The Montserrat Cocoa Farmers Co-operative is located there and has a central fermentor for the area’s farmers. Howad is a member of the co-operative’s board. Her beans and those of other Montserrat farmers are fermented, sun dried in a cocoa house and danced, all in the traditional way, which contribute to their uniqueness.

Howad’s single domain cocoa grown on the special Montserrat clay are searched out by the world’s finest chocolatiers. “Our beans are known for their fruity, floral taste and are used to flavour cocoa from other parts of the world.” Her cocoa is bought by Valrhona, a 1922 premium French chocolatier who also produces a chocolate called Gran Couva.

Swiss chocolatier, Laderach, also buys Howad’s cocoa beans to make its chocolates and a Japanese broker purchases them to sell them to buyers in Japan.

Reliable foreign exchange earner
Howad, formerly of Gasparillo, lives at Preysal, some five or six miles away, and drives to Gran Couva almost daily to help Peter, who stays there and runs the estate. Her husband is deceased. “I supervise and do little odds and ends. I do a little pruning, cut a bunch of fig, help pick, heap and crack cocoa.”

Howad said she loves the quiet, relaxing atmosphere on Santiago Estate and believes the fresh air and activity help keep her healthy. “I enjoy coming here.” 

As for her energy? “I keep trusting in the Lord. I ask Him for the grace to function.” She recounted how prudent planning and vision led her to own a cocoa estate.

“I used to work at Imperial Stores in San Fernando (established during the colonial era) which were run by the Montanos.

“They also owned San Salvador Estate which they had bought from the previous owner. 

“When I was promoted from cashier to secretary to assistant property manager, I used to come here and walk through the estate with the overseer to check on it,” she says.

When the Montanos decided to cut up San Salvador Estate and sell it out about 20 years ago, Howad bought a five-acre plot. 

“I said when I retire I will have a place to come to where I can work and relax. The plot was already under cocoa cultivation and I already knew about it,” she said.

She’s passionate about the estate. 

“It’s exciting to see the fruit of your labour. We try to produce a good bean. We had a ten per cent increase in production because we are doing chip grafting of new varieties on the old trees.”

Howad said cocoa remained a reliable foreign exchange earner. “There is always a demand for our cocoa. Foreigners are always coming to visit us up here. When you have no oil, cocoa is always there.” 

Howad urged the Government to place more emphasis on cocoa cultivation and said work gangs could be employed on estates. “Cocoa should be king once more,” she said.

A police officer from the Northern Division appeared before a Chaguanas Magistrate today charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest and refusing to submit to a breathalyser test.

On Friday last, Curtis Regarldo, 41, from La Pastora, Lopinot was involved in an accident on the Southern Main Road, Curepe. 

WPC Roberts responded to the scene where she noticed that Regarldo had blood-shot eyes, smelt of alcohol and had slurred speech.

Roberts asked Regarldo to submit to a breathalyser test, but he refused. Roberts attempted to arrest Regarldo, but he resisted.

Regarldo was also charged for using obscene language.

On Saturday he was granted $500 bail at the Cunupia police station.

He appeared in court on Monday before Magistrate Wendy Ann Dougdeen-Bally. He pleaded not guilty and was granted $25,000 bail. He is to appear before the court on March 22.

According to TTPS regulations, once an officer is charged he cannot be on active duty because he is automatically suspended.

A fruit vendor died today at hospital after he was shot outside Laura & Joey’s mini mart around 10 pm yesterday in Chaguanas.

Cyril De Leon, a resident of Enterprise, Chaguanas, was approached by an gunman who was dressed in dark clothing. Several shots were fired before the gunman escaped on a bicycle in a southerly direction along School Street, Enterprise.

The incident left 63-year-old De Leon with multiple gunshot wounds about the body. He was rushed to the Chaguanas District Health Facility for emergency treatment and was later transfered to the Eric Williams Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where he died. 

Police officers including members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Chaguanas Division Task Force visited the scene.

Investigations continue.